Learn more

Researchers take aim at causes of Parkinson's disease

Posted
May 1, 2012

University of Minnesota scientists hope that two
new studies will enhance understanding of the
underlying causes of Parkinson’s disease, potentially
leading to the development of new drug
therapies and treatment options for patients.

In one study, neuroscientist Michael Lee, Ph.D.,
and his colleagues examined one of the obvious
causes of the progression of Parkinson’s: dying
neurons in the patient’s brain.

In the lab, researchers discovered a protein
called alpha-synuclein with the potential to build
up in the endoplasmic reticulum, the part of a
neuron responsible for producing dopamine.
Accumulation of alpha-synuclein can disrupt the
neuron’s functioning, and the cell eventually dies.

Aiming to confirm their previous finding, Lee’s
team in another study identified the mechanism
behind the death of the cells. When they therapeutically
targeted this pathway, they saw a delay
in the progression of Parkinson’s disease in an
animal model.

“Ultimately, our initial study looks to reduce the
stress placed on the endoplasmic reticulum,
which we believe would delay the onset and/
or progression of PD,” says Lee, who was the
lead investigator of both studies. “In our second
study, we put [our hypothesis] to the test in
animal studies. We treated mice and rats with
the compound Salubrinal, which alleviates stress
in the endoplasmic reticulum and decreases the
number of neuron cells that die.”

The mice treated with Salubrinal were significantly
healthier and lived longer than those that
received a placebo, he says.

Lee says this knowledge will inform future
research on how other compounds like Salubrinal
could be made more effective and usable in
humans to one day treat Parkinson’s disease.